Canon’s third-generation printer series to empower SMEs in India

"With the launch of the third generation 'imageRUNNER ADVANCE' Series, we aim to add more 'colours to India' and strengthen our mark in the colour printing segment," said Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, Canon India.

Recognising the need of advanced printing solutions and to deliver enhanced workplace productivity, Canon India on Tuesday launched the third generation ‘imageRUNNER ADVANCE’ Series and a robust A3 colour multi-function device (MFD) ‘iR C3020’. Targeted towards the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and start-up communities, the products are now available for sale in the India market.

“As India plays an increasingly vital role in the growth of Canon in Asia, the launch will further strengthen the important position of ‘Business Imaging Solutions’ within Canon India’s total business and be a vital contributor to the overall growth of Canon,” Howard Ozawa, President and CEO, Canon Asia Marketing Group, told reporters here.

Earlier this year, Canon marked its 20th anniversary in the country and announced its “Vision 2020” under which, the company has set a growth target of Rs 3,500 crore in the next three years.

Enhanced with a 10.1-inch touchscreen, the third-generation series offers an intuitive user experience with smartphone-like gestures, such as swiping and pinching for easy navigation across the local user interface.

The ‘Force Hold Printing’ enables users to preview and edit print settings before releasing the temporarily held print jobs at the device.

“Fleet management is made easy with the third generation of the ‘imageRUNNER ADVANCE’. Built-in with Remote Operator Software Kit, IT administrators are able to remotely assist users during troubleshooting without the need to be physically at the device,” the company said.

The Content Delivery System (CDS) provides a way to automate firmware updates via ‘eMaintenance’ allowing the entire device fleet to be updated in tandem. Scheduled updates can be arranged to take place during off-peak hours to further reduce interruptions.

The ‘Intelligent Recovery’ function identifies a bystander, a passerby or an approaching user via the infrared motion sensor and accordingly, the device avoids unintentional recovery and remains in sleep mode or automatically recovers for added user convenience.

Common bottlenecks, such as double-feeding of originals and scanning of blank pages can be easily resolved by Multi-sheet Detection and Skip Blank Originals respectively in the new products.

The third generation series comes standard with Wireless LAN support, providing users with the flexibility to print and scan wirelessly from their smart devices.

“We are envisioning this colour series to play an integral role in catering to a wide base of customers in the commercial, enterprise and government sector,” added K Bhaskhar, Vice-President, Business Imaging Solutions, Canon India, added.

Kobayashi also announced that the company has attained a double digit growth of 14 per cent in the first half of 2017 over the same period last year.

With its product portfolio, including copier MFDs, printers and imaging products, Canon India recorded revenue of Rs 2,348 crore in 2016.

Set up in 1997, Canon markets over 200 comprehensive range of sophisticated contemporary digital imaging in India. Canon has offices and warehouses in 14 cities and employs over 1,000 people.